Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots April 28, 2018 - Day Three Picks

Episode Date: April 29, 2018

Mark Schofield breaks down New England's Day Three selections.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good evening and welcome into Lockdown Patriots for Saturday, April 28th, 2018. Mark Schofield back in the big chair to recap day three of the 2018 NFL Draft. Reminded to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Follow the work over at InsideThePylon.com, Pro Football Weekly, and a host of other places. You can also see the quarterback work, the video stuff at youtube.com slash insidethepylon. And folks, we made it. We made it to the end of the 2018 draft and looking around, all the notes in front of me ready to talk about the players the Patriots drafted today but first things first I think time to open an adult beverage I'm it's actually Perrier flavored water kids

it's still early and I'm working here so you're gonna be at the top of your game where the Patriots at the top of your game. Were the Patriots at the top of their game today, working their way through rounds four through seven of the NFL draft? Well, it will take a couple of years to find out. But let's dive into the players they drafted in the Patriots. Despite being on the clock early in the fourth round, many of us, myself included, expected them to perhaps draft Kyle Lauletta with that first pick of the day.

It was a morning and early afternoon filled with trades down. Patriots moving down multiple times in the fourth round until they finally traded out of the fourth round completely. It was not until the fifth round, the sixth pick in the fifth round, pick 143 overall, that the Patriots finally made a selection on day three. Juwan Bentley, linebacker from Purdue University. And I wrote up a quick blurb on him over at LockedOnPatriots.com, so I'm not going to spend a ton of time on him. My first exposure to Mr. Bentley was at the Senior Bowl down in Mobile, Alabama,

where he wore the number zero, which I thought was an interesting little factoid to pass along. Now, look, he's a two-down thumper type guy. He's aggressive, stout versus the run, takes very good angles, both whether he's play side or back side, depending on the flow of the play in front of him. He's an interesting linebacker. Is he the type of linebacker I thought that the Patriots were going to target in this draft? I'm not so sure. I think when you watch him, he's got the ability to play against the run. He's a two-down thumper type of a linebacker.

Quick to keen diagnose on running plays. Like I said, takes good angles whether play side or back side. Has good upper body strength to stack and shed blockers in the hole or at the point of attack. Interestingly enough, when we studied him over at Inside the Pylon, he did not make our draft guide. He was not one of the players we graded highly enough to make the draft guide. But we still studied him and had multiple reports on him. We found that he could also be used on passing downs as a sub-package interior rusher or blitzer.

If there's a weakness on him, it is with respect to the passing game. And it's in terms of man coverage. He's not the most athletic linebacker. So there are some times where he struggles staying with running backs, staying with tight ends in man coverage situations. But if you're looking to sort of add some depth, if you're looking at perhaps in a Landon Roberts upgrade, I think they got that in Juwan Bentley. Is it the type of linebacker, again, that we expected them to get, that we expected them to sort of covet in this draft probably not but if you can upgrade at that sort of you know mike middle linebacker spot

over orland and roberts i think the patriots got that they addressed linebacker again surprisingly enough in the sixth round with their pick, with the fourth pick in the sixth round pick, 178 overall. Christian Sam, linebacker from Arizona State University. And Sam, again, more of a Mike heavy linebacker type. Look, Tom Meade, who studied him for us at Inside the Pylon, described him as a heavy inside linebacker that could stand toad who studied him for us and inside the pylon described him as a heavy inside linebacker that could stand to take on blocks better in the hole but he provides versatility in his ability against the run in zone coverage and underneath man coverage so while he's sort of a stouter backer 6-1-2-44 he's a bit. Showed some flexibility to be able to stay on the field

in third down situations. Shows good awareness and zone coverage. As Tom wrote, he gets solid depth on his drop within the hook curl area with good change of direction to get downhill to pass plays in front of him. He's able to redirect crossing routes while keeping his eyes on the quarterback. He's capable of being a spy on the quarterback to contain any running attempts. This almost sounds, in a sense to me, sort of like a Marquise Flowers type, that they might be looking to upgrade over Marquise Flowers. Again, you key on that phrase there, the capability of spying the quarterback to contain running attempts. Remember in the division around playoff,

that's how they used Flowers against Marcus Mariota at times. Strength and weaknesses on Sam. Strengths, athletic ability, play speed, keen diagnose, range pursuit, and toughness. Weaknesses, football intelligence. He'll need to sort some stuff out there. Play strength and gap fitting, coverage, and tackling. So while the man coverage might be not the best trait on him, I still think you get enough there. So these two linebacker picks, not sort of the players that I had in mind for the Patriots when they looked to address a linebacker.

Looking back at my notes on some of the linebackers I was thinking about in the middle rounds. You know, Fred Warner, you know, Malik Jefferson I've talked about, Shaquem Griffin, Josie Jewell, Tigre Scales, Jason Cabinda. You know, I had sort of a two-down thumper type in Cabinda in mind, but more in the seventh round. So in Bentley and Sam, they get some nice pieces at the linebacker spot. Not the guys I would have expected, but we'll see how it plays out. Up next, we're going to talk about two players that I did sort of expect the Patriots to perhaps be in on in this draft,

as well as, well, they got a quarterback. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now talking about what the Patriots did on day three of the 2018 NFL draft. And I want to go back in time for a bit. I want to go back in time to a tired man just back after a week down in Mobile, Alabama for the Senior Bowl.

Trying to sort things out, going through his notes, putting together some content. And as he goes through his notes, he keeps coming back to a name that he's underlined a couple of times. Some notes that he's written there in his notepad about how this player flashed on some things, did some things that he thought made some sense for the New England Patriots. And it was in my first LockedOnPatriots.com piece recap of the Senior Bowl

that I mentioned Isaiah Wynn, who the Patriots did draft 23rd overall, and Braxton Berrios, the wide receiver from Miami. And if you've been listening to this show, if you've been seeing the mock drafts over at DailyMockDraft.com, it seemed like near the end of every mock, I kept coming back to Braxton Berrios, wide receiver, Miami. And wouldn't you know it,

sixth round, pick 36 in the sixth round, pick 210 overall, Braxton Berrios. It happened. Pat myself on the back as we speak. And I liked Braxton Berrios down in Mobile. I said it when, obviously, when I recorded the recap show and the write-up that I did over at LockedOnPatriots.com, which you can go check out.

I tweeted it out again today. I thought he made perfect sense for the Patriots as the potential slot guy that they're going to need a year or two from now. Obviously, with Danny Amendola moving on, maybe there's an important need for him sooner rather than later. I said throughout this entire draft process that slot was going to be a position that they would address.

And they did, and they did it with the guy that I thought. And look, he can probably carve out a role for this team in multiple receiver sets. Even though it is a crowded wide receiver room, he does the kind of stuff that the Patriots rely on in their offense. They in part build their offense around. And let's not forget, he can be a returner on special teams right away. Kick returns, punt returns. He can come in and do that week one as a rookie. So I'm very excited about this pick. I'm very excited about the Barrios pick because

of the potential that he brings to the Patriots right out of the gate. And similar to when we talked about Juwan Bentley, he didn't make the ITP draft guide, but it didn't mean we went without looking at him and studying him. And looking at reports that we have in on him right now, he was described as a guy that could start as a wide receiver at the slot. Got a huge increase in playing time last season at Miami. Positives on him, play speed, quickness, intelligence, agility, and toughness. Obviously, size and his release versus the press, those are some weaknesses on him. He did struggle when he faced press coverage down at the senior bowl. But if you're looking at him as a slot-type guy, that's somebody you can move around pre-snap. You can get him in a free-release-type situation.

You can use him in stacked slots, similar to how they used Julian Edelman. I think this is a great pick. And I kept thinking it was going to be that first pick in the seventh round. They did it in the sixth round. So they valued him slightly higher than I did, perhaps. So I'm very excited about this pick. It's one of those picks that, yeah, I was calling this one for a while. A lot of people were calling this one for a while, even down at Mobile.

Every time he made a play, people would turn and look at me and just give that no and nod, like, yeah, he's going to be a Patriot, isn't he? You could just get the sense that Braxton Berrios was going to end up on the New England Patriots roster somehow, and it happened. So very excited about the Braxton Berrios pick. The next one is the moment that people were waiting for. Throughout the entire draft, everyone, myself included, thought Patriots were going to be quarterback at some point. We thought maybe it would be Kyle Lalletta. But it's not Lalletta. The Patriots decide to pass on Lalletta, and he goes to the New York Giants.

Lalletta going to the Giants with the eighth pick in the fourth round. Mike White was a name that had been linked to the Patriots. He comes off the board in the fifth round to the Dallas Cowboys, which I kind of like that fit. I'll get more into the other quarterback stuff probably in a later show. Luke Falk, a name many people linked to the New England Patriots. People went as far, Mel Kuyper included, as describing Luke Falk as perhaps the next Tom Brady. Well, he goes, interestingly enough, to the Tennessee Titans at pick 199, like the aforementioned Brady. A couple picks later, Tanner Lee goes to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

A player I was not that high on. Lee was quarterback 18 for me. Tanner Lee coming off the board there. Alex Magoo. He comes off the board right after the pick that the Patriots make with that first pick in the seventh round with a dressed quarterback. Magoo was a player that I sort of liked late in the process, got some buzz late in the process, was linked to the Patriots at one point, I do believe. But he goes to the Seattle Seahawks. And then finally, Logan Woodside,

whom I loved, was my quarterback eight. He goes to the Cincinnati Bengals, the last quarterback drafted in the 2018 NFL Draft. But with that first pick in the seventh round, the Patriots, they do address quarterback. And it's Danny Etlin from LSU. And this was one of those moments where I was glad that you do the work, that you have the notes on guys because he didn't crack my top 20 quarterbacks that I ranked over at insidethepylon.com, but I was able to pull up the binder

that had him in it, that he was in, because I've got, I think, five, six binders just on this year's Draft Quarterback Expo. Pulled out five notes on him. Strengths, operated in a run heavy offense a pro style quote-unquote offense okay drops from center or in the shotgun three-step drops better than five-step drops as five-step drops tend to drift okay placement and velocity on most throws

good on the move throws well in the move particularly when moving to his right shows good footwork in the pocket he can make make progression in full field reads, good in scramble drill situations. Weaknesses on him, these were part of the reasons that I did not rank him that highly. Poor anticipation throws, more of a see it, throw it type quarterback. Has to see it come open. Many times the ball would come out late. Tends to lock on to wide receivers early in the play, particularly, and this is something that scared me, on third down and even third and long situations where he just knows he has to make a play but locks onto his primary read and doesn't move his eyes. Play speed can be poor at times. Accuracy does dip when he's pressured or he's forced to sort of speed up his process when he

gets blitzed. Similarly on those third down situations like we talked about, he speeds it up by just locking on to the target and not really going through the full progression structure of the play. Mechanics, lower body mechanics could be a mess at times. There's a note on a throw to the flat against Southern Miss in 2016 where he just completely missed it. And so the things that I wanted to see improve were anticipation, accuracy, and sort of lower body mechanics but I did think that a West Coast or an art parkin system were sort of schematic fits for him and look through some of my play notes you know you know this game against Arkansas in

2016 you know the first play the first note under center play action pin pass last drop has Z receiver on a stopper hitch route you pause it you can tell that he needs to get the ball out on this play He has to make an anticipation throw he doesn't he doesn't pull the trigger. It's open for whatever reason He doesn't pull the trigger. He doesn't make the anticipation throw comes to his tight end on a seam route that's covered then he's forced to take the check down and This is sort of, in a nutshell, where Danny Etlin is right now, I think, as a quarterback. Because if he makes that anticipation throw, gets that ball out when he should, offense has a chance for a good

play. But he doesn't, then it gets himself into trouble and he's forced to take a check down. Now, when you're talking about a guy in the seventh round, okay, I can live with it. And, you know, I think that perhaps because of people like me, you know, maybe I should take some blame here. You know, people expected the Patriots to address quarterback earlier than they needed to. And I did at times caution everybody that they could go a different direction. They could go the later round. That's why I kept talking about Logan Woodside. I was talking about Chad Kanaugh from Princeton as well, saying that they could even go the UDFA route because they do still have Brady.

They obviously have Brian Hoyer. If they felt that they had to address other needs, they could have just waited and gone quarterback later in the draft. And that's what they did. Is Etlin a guy I'm super excited about right now? No. Are there things I think that could fit well with New England's offensive structure? Sure. Do I see potential in him? Yeah. So like all of these guys, we give it time. We see how it pans out. Would I have been more excited about a Kyle Oletta or Logan Woodside even? Yeah, but I'm just a guy sitting in a chair in his dining room drinking Perrier. I'm not in the room. They obviously liked that, and then they had him in for a private workout, and so we see how it goes. We'll move on now, going through the rest of the Patriots draft, some other players that

the Patriots selected here. Keon Crossan, cornerback from Western Carolina, was their next pick. 25th pick in the seventh round. Pick 243 overall. What do I know about him? Not much. And I got to be honest, we studied over 500 players for the ITP draft guide. We don't even have a report on this guy. So I'm sort of learning about him on the fly right here. He was a two-year starter at Western Carolina, made 67 tackles with one forced fumble, seven pass breakups in 2017,

had 61 tackles, three of them for a loss, and seven passes broken up as a junior, combined to post 37 tackles during his first two years at Western Carolina small undersized corner five nine and a half 173 ran a 4.4 40 yard dash almost been a pro day time I believe pretty good change of direction skills pretty good ball skills as evidenced by the past breakups some weaknesses on him and I'm taking this from a report over at draftanalyst.com tony pauline's group does some good work so that's what i'm

relied on here you know late to react to receivers moves off the line does not slow down opponents with jams at the line of scrimmage you wonder about him and sort of that press man stuff we were talking about with duke dawson maybe they're looking at him as purely a slot guy or a nickel dime type corner. Prefers to side shuffle, rarely backpedals downfield, short and struggles with taller receivers. And to that point I was just mentioning, Tony Pauline writes him up. He offers potential dime packages and man off coverage and can serve on coverage units. So Keon Crossan, the other cornerback drafted by the New England Patriots, again in the seventh round. And finally, the last Patriots draft pick, Ryan Izzo, tight end Florida State.

And if you listened to one of the preview shows when I took you through the Patriots board, I mentioned Izzo as perhaps a seventh round option for the New England Patriots at the tight end position, more of a blocking type tight end. He can give you a little bit in the pass game as a receiver, but as I broke him down for you in that show, he's pretty much a tight end three goal line jumbo package type of guy right now. I mean, at ITP overall, we loved him. You know, he was tight end nine for us.

Tom Meade was the lead scout on that, described him as a tough, aggressive, and consistent blocker who can serve as a check down option, but lacks the explosiveness, hands, and route running to carve out a bigger role in the passing game. But the main thing we liked was physical toughness and play strength as a run and pass blocker. Very good blocker who uses

quickness balance and hand usage to lock in on one-on-one blocks and employs good play strength and leg drive to move his man on down and pin blocks also has the lateral quickness to execute zone blocks getting his head across and controlling the defender scheme versatility in the run game the patriots use both zone as well as gap and power schemes. So you get that in a blocker in Ryan Izzo, their new tight end from Florida State. So there it is. There are your day three picks.

I can sense, just from scrolling the timeline and some of the tweets that have been sent to me, as well as some of the texts and Facebook messages and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. There's some consternation out there in Patriots Nation.

Matter of fact, one of my favorite listeners, just a loyal listener, I really appreciate him, Jim Reynolds, who is at studio underscore Jim on Twitter. He and I were chatting on Twitter coming into this day. This will be the day, this will be the day we get a quarterback. He tweets to me, the 2019 quarterback class better have some studs in it. Hashtag Patriots. Hashtag too soon. I'm going to drop some 2019 quarterback takes here in a second, but give Jim a follow. He's at studio underscore Jim on Twitter. But before I do that,

folks, let's talk big picture. Let's talk holistic approach because Jim's not alone. There are people that are a little, shall we say, dicey, frustrated right now, wondering why the Patriots did what they did. And I don't totally have an answer. I don't. I think that they clearly had an approach. They had some needs that they wanted to address at positions we thought they would address them. They had a need at quarterback.

They addressed it. They had needs at linebacker. They addressed it. They had a need at wide receiver. They addressed it. Tight end, they addressed it. Thinking back to the first two rounds, again, they go corner. They go offensive tackle. They get a running back. I think it's important to not lose sight of

the whole entirety of the offseason process. Remember, the draft is just one part, one part of the offseason process. The Patriots have already made other additions. They brought in a Jordan Matthews, a Cordell Patterson to help bolster the wide receiver room. They make additions at running back. They add Jeremy Hill from the Cincinnati Bengals. So they add an addition there. They made the trade today for Trent Brown to bolster the,

I mean, they made that Friday for Trent Brown to bolster the offensive line. They have additions in Adrian Claiborne and Danny Shelton up front. So they made some additions. They brought in Jason McCourty to help the defensive backfield. And then remember, they're getting guys back. They're getting Dante Hightower back from injury. They're getting Derek Rivers, a third round draft pick in last year's draft, who they liked, who really stood out at times in the pre-draft process. They're getting him back on the edge. They're getting Antonio Garcia back, another third-round pick, to help bolster that offensive line. So I think when you put the draft in the more global context

of the Patriots' off-season acquisitions and moves, I think you get a better sense of where this team is right now. And part of the draft is a double-edged sword. It's a fantastic thing for people like me because we get to talk about players and prospects and evaluations and scouting reports for really a year. Because the 2019 stuff is going to drop immediately. There will be mock drafts probably if they're not up now or by the time you listen to this. They'll be up by Monday. I've already started my quarterback work.

I will have videos out on the next guys in the next couple of days. And as I said, I'm going to tease's minds, in fans' minds, in listeners' minds, readers' minds, sort of the sense of importance of the draft. So we build up this year-long process to the draft and people get so caught up in it that sometimes when you don't hear players drafted or the team doesn't make the picks that you expected, you start to wonder what's going on. And as a member of the draft industrial complex myself, I'm as guilty of it as anybody. But I think what it's important now to sort of take a step back and realize that as a whole, they have improved the roster at a number of positions of need

throughout the entire off-season process. And when people sit here and they talk about Kyle Oletta or they talk about guys like Mike Giusecchi at tight end or Sam Hubbard at the edge or Marcus Davenport at the edge or Maurice Hurst at defensive tackle or Nathan Shepard or name any other position that we spend time talking about. We get excited, but the organization goes in a different direction. The board falls in a different way. And they ultimately have more information than we do. They meet with these guys. They have access to medical records, coaching interviews, family interviews, one-on-one interviews.

They ultimately have more information. Do they get it right all the time no do we get it right all the time no no but that's what makes it fun and it is supposed to be fun and i hope you enjoyed following along with me through this entire roller coaster ride of the draft itself and that's kind of where i want to close which is a thank you you know to all of you you know and i said this on twitter on Thursday. Again, follow me on Twitter at MarkSkullField. But I get to do this for a living. I walked away from being a lawyer because it just wasn't for me. It was driving me insane. And now I get to write and talk about football for a living. And I remember back before I even made the career switch, in some of those dark moments

when I was practicing as a lawyer, I think, man, I would love to be able to just write about football or talk about football. That would just be the dream job for me because that's what gets me excited. Trying a case doesn't excite me. Taking a deposition doesn't excite me taking a deposition doesn't excite me and getting yelled at by partners certainly didn't excite me talking about football always did and now i get to do it i get to do it on a daily basis i get to do it you know 70 80 hours a week and it barely feels like a job anymore because it's just fun to to talk to all of you and to interact with all of you and the reason i get to do it is in large part because of you, because of your listens, your clicks on articles, the interactions with you. You guys have welcomed me into your commutes or your daily jobs, your offices, your cars, your rides home. You've let me in. And because of that, I can't thank you guys enough It's been a blast this entire season

You know covering a team Into a Super Bowl And now covering the draft with you all It's been just a fantastic ride I cannot thank you all enough You guys make this Dream of mine possible So from the bottom of my heart

Sincerely thank you all Now I'll leave you with this. Some early 2019 quarterback takes. Ryan Finley is who we thought Mason Rudolph was. Jake Brown will have some arm strength concerns, but I think there's a developmental quarterback inside of him, if not more. Drew Locke has shown strides. He was a better passer last year than the year before that.

Will Greer is something to watch. DeAndre Francis is as tough as it gets at the quarterback position. Brett Rippitt, also a name to watch. Those are some early 2019 cakes. There are a lot more guys that I'm going to watch that I already have watched. There's going to be a lot more work done on all of these guys. There will be names that we don't know right now that rise.

But it's going to be fun. And the next road to the 2019 draft begins now. But that will do it for today's show. I will be back tomorrow, I think, if not Monday, probably Monday. I need a day. I'll be back Monday with a full recap of a more global approach to the draft, who I think had good drafts, who I think maybe missed in a couple of picks. Then we'll get into some guests. We will go five shows next week. And then, look, as we get into some guests we will go five shows next week and then look as we get into May I'll probably scale things back a bit

until we get a little bit closer to training camp and stuff like that but I'm not going anywhere you're stuck with me kids until next time keep it locked right here to me Mark Schofield and Locked on Patriots you